An astronaut on board the International Space Station (in a microgravity environment) wants to measure the mass of an unknown metal component. They place the component into a device that applies a known constant electromagnetic force F F\,F and measures the resulting acceleration aaa.
Which type of mass is being directly measured by this device, and what is its correct definition?
Gravitational mass, defined as the ratio of the net force applied to the object to the resulting acceleration.
Inertial mass, defined as the quantitative measure of an object's resistance to acceleration when a net force is applied.
Gravitational mass, defined as the property of an object that determines the magnitude of the gravitational force it experiences in a gravitational field.
Inertial mass, defined as the magnitude of the gravitational force acting on the object per unit gravitational field strength.
16 exam-style questions on OCR GCSE Physics Newton’s laws. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.